How Far Away From Earth Is Mars?

Everyone knows that Mars is one of our two neighboring planets (Venus is the other), but just how far away is it?

The Red Planet has been in the news lately, maybe more than ever, with NASA’s Curiosity Rover making the epic voyage to Mars in 2012.

Interestingly, the distance of the Red Planet quite tough to wrap your head around. On average, Mars is 140 million miles away. At its very closest, Mars has been 34.8 million miles away. To put that in perspective, the moon is just 239,000 miles away from Earth. So, by comparison it’s quite the distance.

In fact:

If you could walk from Earth to Mars at a brisk rate (about five miles per hour) it would take about 4,000 years to reach the Red Planet.

If you drove a car 70 mph, it would take 228 years.

If you had a 747 airlane, it would still take 32 years.

But there is a faster way. NASA launched the Curiosity Rover to Mars, traveling at almost 23,000 mph. So fast, in fact, that it got there in 253 days.

Still can’t comprehend that distance? We’ve just come across a very cool, interactive graphic that shows the distance in a fun way. Click the image below to check it out:

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